Fattening Performance and Carcass Characteristics of Simmental, Aberdeen Angus, Hereford, Limousin and Charolais Cattle Breeds in Turkey

Abstract

In this research, it was aimed to determine fattening performance and carcass characteristics of Simmental (SIM), Aberdeen Angus (ANG), Hereford (HER), Limousin (LIM) and Charolais (CHA) breeds. For this purpose, 606 male cattle between 10 and 12 months old imported from Uruguay and France in 2015 were used. All animals were fed ad-libitum for the same ration throughout the fattening period for approximately 7-9 months. Since the animals were slaughtered between April-June 2016, their fattening period were different. As a result of variance analysis, the effects of breed, initial weight (IW) and fattening period (FP) were found to be significant. For SIM (n=100), ANG (n=147), HER (n=149), LIM (n=104) and CHA (n=106); IW were 261.6, 267.3, 276.7, 264.1, 276.7 kg; FP were 206.7, 238.1, 261.4, 227.0, 283.6 days; final weight were 523.4, 543.3, 563.1, 545.5, 589.7 kg; daily weight gain were 1362.9, 1275.9, 1214.2, 1266.9, 1101.1 gr; hot carcass weight were 303.4, 317.7, 332.1, 319.3, 351.2 kg, respectively. CHA performed better than the others for the carcass weight, while SIM for daily weight gain is higher.